"A great idea that plays too slowly."

Leave it to Camerica to make strange and quirky games for the old consoles. I'm still wondering just as to which audience they were trying to cater to here, it's definitely geared towards children with the concept but the high level of difficulty will curb most kids and that leaves experienced gamers left to pick this up but can't think of too many older or more experienced players who will enjoy the kiddy atmosphere of this game.

The game may actually hold a high amount of replay value if you are good enough to finish this game. It is made up of 12 stages and at the beginning of the game you can choose the front or back door of the house each with their own set of 12 stages, so that actually makes 24 stages. The game ramps up quite steeply in difficulty and the heat really turns on around the third or fourth stages. You are a bee who is out to collect honey from nearby flowers and take it back to her hive. She can shoot a projectile from her nose and sting enemies with her stinger. You have to collect several drops of honey then take it back and fill up a jar and then go back and get more until the jar in each stage is full, you can only collect three drops at a time and you have to traverse the whole stage to empty it into your jar which grows boring and adds needless difficulty to the game really fast. Along the way anything from spiders, flies, ants, grasshoppers and much more will be there to cause trouble for the little bee. There are power-ups for your shooter and invincibility items to aid you on your quest, it is pretty cool to see a bee with a high speed spread shot. Each stage gets a little harder and introduces new enemies, stage 5 is actually in a swamp and it is pretty cool looking despite being slow and tiring. It all seems decent enough but the game play is missing something and it feels frustrating too early on, probably due to slow game play and overly long stages.

The game sports some of the best animation and graphics found on any NES game so needless to say the visuals are great, everything from spiders to ants to the sprinkler that shoots water blasts at you looks great and is definitely easy on the eyes. The sound effects are also very impressive and each one sounds like what it should, there is a ton of variety here and they almost sound like they came from a 16 bit system. The big drag here is that there isn't any music during the game play at all and it really kills the game for me and makes it drone on.

Bee 52 is definitely an original game and a needed break from the more traditional gaming ideas; it shows great potential and promise but is still missing something and only feels just above average to me. It's definitely worth a try for its uniqueness alone, but don't be upset if you just can't get into it like you wish you could.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/09

Game Release: Bee 52 (US, 1992)